With Victoria’s Blessing. Mary Nichols

ground. She was hanging on to his arm with both hands in order to feel him close to her, well aware that it was a shocking way to behave. But she was also aware that her parents expected her to marry someone of her own rank and Richard could hardly be called that.

      ‘You know we cannot marry immediately,’ he said, almost as if echoing her thoughts. ‘Although I do not have to rely on my lieutenant’s pay. Admiral Grayson, my maternal grandfather, invested some of his own prize money on my behalf, which brings in a fair return, but even with that, I still could not give you the life you have been used to. And I have no title or noble connections which might make a difference.’

      ‘I do not care about titles. I would live in a garret with you.’

      He laughed. ‘My darling, brought up in luxury, you can have no idea of what living in a garret is like. I promise you, you would not care for it, and as I am often away at sea you would be lonely without a companion.’

      ‘You ask me to marry you in one breath and then tell me we cannot in the next,’ she said, her joy slowly evaporating.

      ‘I know. I should not have said anything to you, but it has been eating away at me, day by day, until I could keep silent no longer. I simply had to speak.’